Well, a few days out of town and
I was anxious to get back to RV work. I started by filling and shaping
the HS fiberglass tip trailing edge. It's a blurry picture, but
I was happy with the first pass. The concave shape fits the arc
of the rudder perfectly. A little cleanup, sanding and primer and
this little bit is all done.

I needed a long 3/16th drill to clear the HS skin inner edges while drilling
the stabilizer to the fuselage. While I was shopping for that, I
decided to spring for some additional clamps -- just tired of not having
exactly the right clamp when I needed it. Mostly, I was short on
c-clamps. Not so short anymore.

As long as I was stocking up on c-clamps, I decide to add 4 more of these
cushy clamps. They sure are handy, even if the let things wiggle
around a lot. I have plenty of long ones. I needed some shorter
rails, so I got four.

Back to work. I started the process of attaching the horizontal
stabilizer to the fuselage.

One of the first things I needed to do was to make two small shims to
hold the front HS spar up off the deck. The plans call out one on
each side cut to fit the angle of the fuselage. I used the old fashioned,
but reliable hacksaw to rough them out.

Here are the finished shims.
Cut, deburred and primed. Yeah, I went a little heavy on the primer.
Please don't send me any emails about the extra weight. I'll eat
a little less to make up for it...

So, back to the installation process. I marked the position of
each shim as a general reference. I noted that the shims were wider
than the bottom leg of the angle they sit under. I thought about
cutting them down a little, but this is what the plans call for, so this
is what it will be. Hmmm, more weight...

Next I cut a piece of paper to mark the drill holes because it is a little
on the difficult to measure in there. The bottom arrow points to
the inner drill hole on the paper and the upper arrow points to where
the hole will go.

Drilling these out required a long (I used a 12") drill. In
small diameters, you have to guide the turning drill with your fingers.
I had to put a little oil on my fingers to keep the drill from making
a blister -- well, at least it was getting really hot and I imagined a
blister was next.

Wow! This day went fast. It felt good to be back at it. I'll
be tied up tomorrow, but the next day will be a free day for RV work!